Seeing the board layout reminds me of our days before CAD when we:
- did the layout with colored pencils on velum at only 2x or 4x actual size
- put the stable-based transparent film layers over that and applied the IC patterns and crepe tapes from Bishop Graphics
- took the films to the graphic-arts house to have them reduced for the PC board manufacturer
- picked up the reductions from there and drove them to the PC board manufacturer
I expect BDD and others here did the same thing. The first time I heard of doing it in CAD and just mailing them a floppy disc, it seemed unrealistic. (The biggest problem seems to be that early CADs were pretty bad though.) We did of course get into CAD, but had an HP plotter to make the films to take to the graphic-arts place. After that, I think we skipped the step of mailing the disc, and we'd use a modem to dial into the PC board house's bulletin-board system and transfer the files, at 1200 or 2400 bps. Later came the internet. Later came faster modems. I remember when they declared that 28.8kbps was going to be the absolute fastest that POTS phone lines could handle; but it wasn't long before 56K came along. Later came DSL.
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